a man in a US Air Force uniform. Whether the police suspected that the two killings were linked is not known. Some three weeks after Jean Townsend's murder, a Mrs Doris Vennell reported being followed and attacked by a man outside North Harrow tube station (on the Metropolitan line and approximately 3 miles from South Ruislip station) while returning home just after midnight. Her attacker had boarded at Baker Street and sat watching her intently until following her off the train at North Harrow. Mrs Vennell challenged him and managed to get away, but only after a struggle during which she tore some buttons off her assailant's coat. Once again, the man was described as having a high forehead. Three years later, in 1957, a young mother called Muriel Maitland was brutally murdered in Cranford Woods near Heathrow Airport (a few miles from Ruislip). It was reported that police considered the possibility of a link with the Townsend case, but it seems that nothing came of this. "Ruislip's Murder Mile" In June 1971, South Ruislip was the scene of another murder. On the morning of Sunday 13 June, the naked body of Gloria Booth was discovered on a recreation ground off Nairn Road, approximately half a mile from South Ruislip Underground Station and a mile from the scene of the Townsend killing. Like Jean Townsend, Mrs Booth – a 29-year-old housewife from Ealing – had died from strangulation and it appeared that once again a scarf had been used. This led at least one journalist to refer to the area as "Ruislip's Murder Mile". Re-examination In October 1982 the Metropolitan Police announced that it was reviewing its files on the Townsend case following a number of anonymous telephone calls. The content of the calls has never been revealed, and the caller's identity remains unknown (though some newspaper reports imply it was a man). The police stated that they were "very interested" in what the caller told them and told reporters that – as a result of the calls – they now felt confident that no American servicemen were implicated and also that there were no links between the Townsend murder and any other crime. Curiously, many of the press reports in 1982 stated that Jean had been raped, contradicting the original reports from 1954. Despite the police announcements and the hints of fresh information, no further developments were reported and